The present invention relates to video coding and, in particular, to video coding techniques that conserve bandwidth while at the same time preserving image quality.
Video coding/decoding systems are being deployed in an ever-increasing variety of consumer devices. Video codecs may be found in modern smartphones and tablet computers, for instance, where communication bandwidth is furnished by wireless networks or other infrastructures providing relatively low and unpredictable bandwidth. Such applications are markedly different than other codec applications, such as, for example, DVD players, where much larger bandwidth may be available for coded video data. Accordingly, modern applications of such codecs impose higher performance requirements on codec designers to reduce the bitrate of coded video as much as possible while still providing good image quality.
The inventors perceive a need in the art for a video coder that identifies objects of interest within video frames and selects coding parameters to provide high quality coding of regions that include the objects, to conserve bandwidth at other regions of the frames, and to provide smooth coding transitions between the various regions.